Art News – weekly round-up

21 November 2014

Fire damage at Glasgow School of Art is surveyed, Cumberland Art Gallery opens at Hampton Court and the Wellcome Collection opens the Institute of Sexology – we round up the top art stories of the week.

Inside the destroyed Glasgow School of Art's library

Glasgow school of Art damage surveyed

The Glasgow School of Art’s catastrophic fire destroyed much of the Mackintosh building, including the unique Art Nouveau library. This week it was opened up to forensic specialists in an attempt to survey the wreckage. The Times reports that ‘the team of eight experts are sifting through layers of debris — predominantly glass, charcoal and plaster — in a methodical operation that, they hope, will lead to a better understanding of the original interior and enable its reconstruction.’

Prince’s Drawing School gets new name

The school set up in 2000 to raise the status and standards of one of the most basic and fundamental of visual arts skills – drawing – is to join a small circle of arts education institutions bearing the royal imprimatur. It will be renamed the Royal Drawing School. The Prince of Wales referred to the art form as ‘a primary language of all human beings’, according to the Art Newspaper.

Cumberland Art Gallery opens at Hampton Court

‘Powerful self-portraits by Rembrandt and Artemisia Gentilschi light up the Royal Collection’s new gallery at Hampton Court’ according to the Guardian’s Jonathan Jones, who gives the exhibition a five star review. Key pieces include Rembrandt's self-portrait and two Caravaggios.

The Wellcome Collection opens the Institute of Sexology

A new exhibition at the Wellcome Collection takes a look at the history of sex studies, known as ‘sexology', ranging from historic sex aids and contraceptives to ground-breaking research into sexually transmitted infections and birth control. The Independent’s image gallery shows of some of the unusual items used in the ‘science of sex’.

And finally…

The promotional film Vatican 3D screened in 250 cinemas this week. Crass or divine? It’s in the eye of the beholder, says the Times.